Just another found Performance art documentation project, Shanghai 2008 1st Installment

It was around Lunar New Year in Xujiahui, Shanghai's hyper modern mall district. On the busy sidewalk outside a photo printing store, might've even been a Kodak, a woman was burning ID photos in a dust pan. Of course I rushed to document this odd occurrence only to be barred by the woman. She kept pushing me away and told me I shouldn't be taking pictures She balked "How weird that you want to photograph this!" I replied " How weired that you are doing this!"
Anyway - the whole affair had the looks of some ancient ancestor worship ritual ... but in a very PM way. In effect- this whole 'found performance' solved one of the dilemmas of the contemporary arts in China in general- how to make traditional practices modern. Gu Wenda, Xu Bing, Zhang Huan, Huang Yongping, Qiu Zhijie at times, and a host of others including this photo store employee are all engaged in this arduous task.

Not the Only Global Misfit: Bar Rouge and Lita CY

And the there was Lita CY
A performance artist, world trekking bohemian and sometimes television producer who does this balloon on the head gag in which she pulls different objects she has stashed down her shirt out into the balloon that is engulfing her head and upper body: magazines, teddy bears, etc. It's about orphans and her own ophan identity. She is Chinese raised by Belgians and now living in Paris.
So there she was at Bar Rouge, Shanghai's most overrated pretentious dump. Sitting pretty overlooking the neon oblivion of the Bund, this very red venue hosted Lita, her balloon tricks, Zhang Zongmei, her famous photographer for hire, a few just off from work expats tourists and a scratchy head staff of 20 too many.
Monday night Shanghai